Rafe's been taking a long look at the Nokia N78, the recently released 'entry-level' handset into the world of Nseries. Intended as a replacement for the N73, the N78 brings together many of Nokia's Ovi elements, alongside the latest software in S60 v3 Feature Pack 2. In this first part of an extensive review, he examines the hardware and connectivity options in the mono-block handset.
Read on in the full article.
How faster is a GPS lock? Has the Music Player been improved? Can it automatically add new tracks now? Did you check the battery consumption with Energy Profiler? How does it compete with other devices?
Great review, look forward to the next part!
BTW
the BL-6F is 1200mAh not 2100
Big question for UK users - does it WiFi stream bbc radio ? If not can one get extra software to do that ?
I have the N78-3 but it doesn't come with N-Gage software and I can't download it from the site? Any ideas of when they'll release a N-Gage app for the N78?
kflyer wrote:How faster is a GPS lock? Has the Music Player been improved? Can it automatically add new tracks now? Did you check the battery consumption with Energy Profiler? How does it compete with other devices?
Some of these will get addressed more fully in part 2, but in brief. GPS lock - quick e.g. I went to London the other day started Nokia Maps and was locked on in around 10 seconds.
Yes music player automatically detects new tracks (for downloads and sync via Nokia sofware / WMP anyway. Outside of that music player is similar (though podcasting has now been better integrated).
Battery consumption is improved in S60 3.2 (I think), but this is quite subjective and depends on how you use the device. Good idea bout energy profiler. I was thinking about doing some benchmarks and I'll add this to the list.
Great review, look forward to the next part!BTW
the BL-6F is 1200mAh not 2100
Thanks - I've corrected that - guess my fingers slipped while typing 😊 Will get the next part up as soon as possible. There's a number of software changes that will interest a number of people.
Big question for UK users - does it WiFi stream bbc radio ? If not can one get extra software to do that ?
Yes it does. I've set this up using RealPlayer. But it does not work in the background which annoys me. (i.e. it stops streaming if you switch away from RealPlayer). There's Internet Radio too, but this uses ShoutCast streams which the BBC does not - handy for Virgin Radio though.
Related to this - it does not work with iPlayer. This isn't really Nokia's fault - the BBC need to fix this (its to do with the way they load flash video files I think). Really though they should make the H.264 videos available for Nseries devices as they do for the iPod Touch / iPhone. No excuse given there is a much bigger base of such users.
I have the N78-3 but it doesn't come with N-Gage software and I can't download it from the site? Any ideas of when they'll release a N-Gage app for the N78?
I've not heard anything precise or official, but I understand it wont be long now. If I had to guess I would say it will be sometime in (early) July. There's going to be a number of S60 3.2 devices so they'll want to sort it asap.
How speedy is the UI compared to a fresh N82?
Definitely the most detailed one I've read, and it's only part one! Can't wait for the rest, thanks!
When, if ever, is this coming to at&t? I don't want to spend $500 just to avoid a contract when I'll probably keep my service for that long anyway
After having an N78 for a few days, I've noticed some things...
1. Build quality: Really great, it has a solid feel with thin gaps all around... really a nicely made phone, better than my N82, that has some strange gaps around the LCD lens and some sticky function keys... and better than my kinda-creaky n95.8gb... i would have to say almost on par with the tank-solid E90 (but made of plastic of course). It really feels much smaller than the N82, almost like a slightly thicker more multimedia centered E51. The LCD on my N82 broke twice the lens flexes so much, the N78 feels MUCH sturdier.
2. Nokia re-shuffled the punctuation characters, so when entering text, the punctuation is different! So on previous S60 phones it'll be .,?! and the n78 is .,'? etc... not a deal breaker, but something new to learn for us dyed in the wool s60 texters... and very annoying for those of us that carry other S60 phones around.
3. The gallery application ONLY works in landscape, after coming from an N95.8/N82 where you have autorotation/slide rotation it's kind of annoying to have to flip the phone over just to view the gallery... and strangely when you choose to send a file, it goes back to vertical...but if you send a photo right after taking it from the "after shot preview" menu it all stays horizontal...FW fix? I hope so...
4. Navi-Wheel is inconsistent! Some menus where you expect it to be implemented it isn't, like say in the settings menu, where it's all long lists, it doesn't work! It would be great to say navi-around the lists, then hit a direction key to change tabs, but again like when sending a file, and when choosing how, with mms/bluetooth etc..it works in the tiny pop-up. I haven't had many mis-presses when selecting things because of the navi-wheel but it's happened a few times. Hopefully... more FW fixes.
5. Camera is AVERAGE to GOOD... but, I was hoping the camera would be as good as the K800/K810s from SE (am I allowed to say that here? hehehe) but instead it's just a bit better than the E90. It has a pretty good LED flash, but the sensor isn't nearly as good as the N95/N82 twins... maybe if they had the 3.2 sensor gain up just a bit more in dim situations it would be more usable,and just a touch more noise reduction in night/night portrait mode.
6. NO VOIP client built in, and I can't get fring or talkonaut to work right now... maybe after they upgrade their clients to work on FP3. I really feel screwed by nokia in this respect. Why would they remove it on any Nseries device? It makes no sense. I've always thought the Nseries was the best they could make a phone, and to have it removed is nonsense. Especially since we all know it's just software! Admittedly Not everyone uses VOIP for their calls, and I can see it if the carrier locked N78s didn't have it, the carriers have to have their say, but for an carrier-unlocked, full-price openline unit... really unforgivable. HOPEFULLY a FW upgrade will add this feature... Can anyone up at AAS HQ ask their secret contacts to see if nokia has plans to add this? I'll probably sell my 2day old N78 just because of this.
7. The transitions are useless... but pretty. hahaha! The screen-rotation animation could be speeded up. Oh, and the horseshoe and V shaped main menus are just strange and impractical. The vertical scrollbar for activestandby was a nice thought but I couldn't find a way to change the shortcuts (i didn't look very hard)
8. The memory speed is fantastic. It accesses the memory card very very very quickly. I was shocked at how fast it was when moving files around using the file manager. Really good work on this front. Hopefully nokia cookie-cutters that bit of code onto the higher S60 devices that most of us already have.
9. The browser seems much faster! I'm not sure if it's just me but it just feels snappier. No tabbed browsing (still)
10. Marking pictures used to be done just holding the # key or the Pencil key and moving the direction button, now it's in a menu!? why? it was FINE the old way, another case of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" i think. Especially since in this "new" and "improved" phone you have your phone rotated to the left. makes it a chore marking and unmarking pix (maybe i'm just being picky, but an annoyance nonetheless).
11. Really a BRIGHT CONTRASTY and beautiful screen, i was a little bit worried about mobile-reviews comment that it was the same screen as the N82, it sure doesn't LOOK the same, the N82 looks kinda washed out whereas the N78 is really fantastic.
There's my list of observations! Hopefully someone at AAS Hq can help me find an answer to my VOIP dilemma! 😊 Hope this post was useful! It's my first! 😊
sblue - Great list - I agree with pretty much everything on there. The navi-wheel bother me less because I only really use it on longer lists. The sensitvity is getting tweaked in the first firmware, maybe they'll add some extra locations it works in too.
Transitions - I'd recommend turning them off myself 😊
Its not just you on the browser, it seem fast rendering to me too. And yes marking items in photos - especially as the old # stuff works fine in other apps. Photos is an improvement over gallery, but there are quite a few annoyances (e.g. same as you mentioned on screen orientation but when adding tags).
With regards to VoIP - yes I noticed this too (after some pointed it out to me) - I've actually added a short paragraph to the review about this (thanks for giving me the reminder). The problem is the removal of the Internet Telephone application which most VoIP service built there offerings on (or could be used with most generic service if set up properly).
I agree its not good at all that it has been removed and will be trying to find out more. It particularly bad to remove it from unbranded phones. There are some suggestions that it will get added back in FP2 later, but whether firmware updates for the N78 is provided is open to debate. See this post on FN for more.
p.s. we dont have any secret contacts (honest!), but we will see what we can learn through the usual channels
How speedy is the UI compared to a fresh N82?
I'd say faster (but then I found the N82 quite nippy). With the caveat you need to turn transitions off. Some apps still take a second or two to start (e.g. Nokia Maps), but most of them are instant. Web is better for example.
When, if ever, is this coming to at&t? I don't want to spend $500 just to avoid a contract when I'll probably keep my service for that long anyway
Nothing official yet I'm afraid to say. AT&T really should carry this phone IMHO.
What on earth were Nokia thinking about removing the Internet Telephone application from the N78 and apparently the N96 also, basically disabling all Sip based services such as Truphone, Sipgate and Gizmo.
This is a serious error on Nokia's part, you gave us the function in the N80IE, N95 and N82 etc, encourage us to download and use Gizmo etc, then remove it.
I can't type what I feel about Nokia at the moment, but needless to say it is a great way for you to lose customers, I use Sipgate daily, when I am in my office it is connected permanently.
It was the one function that has really tied me to the S60 devices in the last couple of years, and from what I hear from a friend at Nokia UK, it has been removed from the mass-market N-Series devices at the request of the operators, Forthcoming E-Series devices aimed at business will keep the function.
<b>Rafe</b>, the new Energy Profiler (v1.1) is better than any benchmark on network and battery performance. It now checks your upload and download speeds, signal strength, processor memory, energy etc. too.
Better to use the proper terms, this is the first USB Hi-Speed compatible S6 device from Nokia. Earlier devices use Full speed.
Does anyone know when the Multimedia Transfer for Mac OSX will be upgraded to support S60 3rd edition FP2 -phones?? I would love to see the new Hi-Speed USB transfer speeds from iTunes to N78 (with at least 8GB microSDHC).
I hope it's soon as that is a deal breaker for me...
=)juha
Better to use the proper terms, this is the first USB Hi-Speed compatible S6 device from Nokia. Earlier devices use Full speed.
Thanks jukka - good point (and thanks for posting the correct terminology) - I have edited the review to use these terms.
Related to this - it does not work with iPlayer. This isn't really Nokia's fault - the BBC need to fix this
I know you're in the UK Rafe, but is it possible that the BBC have deliberately restricted access to iPlayer to reduce the chances of people outside the UK accessing it?
There's a lot of content on the BBC sites which they can't legally distribute outside Britain.
this is the first USB Hi-Speed compatible S6 device from Nokia. Earlier devices use Full speed
You're right we should use the correct terms, but these are pretty confusing terms that the USB people have come up with!
😊
It doesn't really make sense in english to talk about something being faster than "full speed", that's like having more than everything or going slower than stationary.
Rafe or someone else with an N78, please help!
My biggest problem right now with this amazing little phone is Voice Commands over Bluetooth. I have a Motorola H12 and a Jawbone headset, with both of these when I press the button on the headset, the Voice Command software on the N78 launches as I would expect....however...
The input and output for the Voice Commands seems to come through the phone's speaker NOT the BT headset. This makes it pretty silly since you have to be holding the phone to issue commands and seems like an odd choice.
Can you please test this with your N78 and let met know if you have same experience? If there's a Nokia BT headset that you can use where the input/output of the Voice Command comes through the BT headset, I'll gladly buy it.
Thanks.
Hi, Has it tv-out?
So that you can view photos directly on tv?
Hi Rafe,
i have 2 questions:
- is the N78 able to do copy&paste, like the n95 with its "pencil button"?
- Could you post a good sunny video at the N78's 15fps video capture mode? I have seen one, which was at night and two at daylight, during bad weather conditions. I'd be very pleased to see one in good weather condition.
By the way, love the all bout ymbian website and you video reviews. Keep on the good work
Another Question:
Has the N78 a music sleep timer like the iPhone has? I love that feature and never explored it on any nokia device. Is there a chance to see such a great feature?
When can we have more parts of the N78 review?! I'm tempted to buy a new device and I'm really looking forward to hear more about the multimedia features and camera. Is it even a little bit better than my E90?!
=)juha
Hey,
I have some issues with firmware 12.046
1) When on a call, if I press on "Loudspeaker", it says "handset activated" but loudspeaker itself is not activated.
2) The naviwheel is now INSENSITIVE , I have to circle a few times just for it to move one step to the next icon.
Do you have them too?
Some comments are saying voip cannot be used on the n78, after searching for skype software for the phone (which of course I did not find) I came across fring which I downloaded I then registered filled in my skype details and within minutes I was calling my brothers landline in Paris over my home wi-fi connection. I have no idea what sip is or any techie details but that was it no problems, cost about 40p from my skype out account for around 40 minutes conversation, calling my brother is about all I use it for, hope this was some help.
BrenB
i have recieved settings from my provider and aftrer i saved them am still unable to connect to the net thru gprs. Thou when i use the nokia p.c suite it works jus fine bt i cant seem to browse on my 4ne I get the error massage that packet data is not available. Anyone help as my provider is unable to solve this problem
Thank you so much All about Symbian! Your reviews are the most helpful around! Not only are they the best written (apart from a few English language howlers here and there) but also they are definitely the most extensive and they cover the most ground!
You can count on me clicking on a few ads whenever I'm around here!
Don't know if this got through last time - if it did apologies. I just wanted to thank Rafe and I'm sure the others for writing such good reviews and for being so honest when you don't get the terminology right! I know lots of technology bloggers (not mentioning names) who imagine that they never make mistakes.
I find these reviews of the smartphones very well written (apart from the occasional English language howler!) and hugely informative. A real deal-maker, this review has been!
Cheers.
-Goive
Although i set ring tones for different persons in the n78, whenever the phone rings it uses the default ring tone. how can i solve this problem?.
When I buy my n78, animation camera works as usually. I don't know what I do but now animation camera don't works well. Animation rotation has changed become an error transition. But camera works well.
Can you help me?
Thanks